When you start with a blog, you can either choose to host it for free (like on wordpress.com) or pay and be self hosted. Let me tell you from experience, that the free host on wordpress.com is pretty good for a start, but you will have many constraints regarding customisation.
Between free hosting platforms, I believe that WordPress is the best one, especially if you are blogging for your own pleasure and are not planning to monetize your blog. In that case, I would recommend using WordPress.org, where you will host your own site. With WordPress.com, on the other hand, it’s WordPress.com that takes care of all of this for you (easier to start, less freedom).
If you want to customize and monetize your blog, the constraints with a free host are many. I can tell you that from experience, as I have suffered so much to transfer my blog from WordPress to another Host, it took me a few days, as the free version does not allow ANY plugins to fully transfer your blog. I had to transfer it manually, and thus I lost many data and media on the way. Right there I felt I should have been more informed before starting my blog, and now I am trying to help you not repeat my mistakes.
Let’s het back to you new blog! Think about the future. If you want to monetize your blog, in order to have full control over the aesthetic and have a professional domain name (like libratravelblog.com rather than libratravelblog.wordpress.com) then you should go self hosted.
As my bitter experience of changing the host let’s you understand, when I created my blog I had no idea that self hosted existed, so I originally set up an account on the free wordpress.com. In order to have a professional domain name and use plugins for customization, I had to upgrade to a business account (over 300€ a year!) and that is a lot when you are not yet earning from your blog!
As my blog started to grow, I realized all the constraints I had, and that I needed to become self hosted. I decided to migrate my blog over to BlueHost, which is 3-times cheaper than WordPress. It was super easy to migrate over, I used the All-in-one WP migration plugin.
I wish I’d known about self hosting options before starting my blog. Hopefully you won’t make the same mistake as me.
Great tips for people interested in starting a blog
Thank you darling
This is a beautiful step by step guide for beginners, a beautiful post you have up there.
Thank you so much
Thank you for this! As a nebie in the world of blogging, I find it helpful.
I’m so happy it helps. Do you have any questions?
Create post for anyone new to blogging
It’s adapted for all. Thank you! Hope it helps!
I wish I read this when I started my blog…! Your explanations are very understandable, which is good because I remember how hard it was to understand how anything worked in the beginning 🙂
I totally understand. I have made so many mistakes in the past year, until I finally started to get it.
Very detailed list/tips. Thanks for sharing them. Really helped!
So happy to hear that!
Great tips and resources!
Christa | http://www.thelewicreative.com
Thanks darling!
I have read it and understood thanx I am in Uganda can someone start a blog with out moving into all the place to talk about?
You can start a blog in one place and stay there. Do you mean about growing your audience?
I’m about 1.5 months into my blog journey and this was so helpful!
Happy to hear that!
This is amazing! Thank you for that🙏
I wish I had this tips when I started blogging these are some excellent ways to develop a great blog.
Me to and this is why I created it. Hope it still helps. Thank you for your kind words!
As a new blogger these were definitely great tips for me, thank you
Happy to hear that!
Great tips, very detailed and easy to understand for beginners!
Nice tips! Thanks for sharing
This is great! So helpful. 🙂
These are great tips for someone who already started their blog like I did almost 3 months ago. Especially helpful is how social media helps SEO. Good information!
Happy to share! Thank you for your feedback!
These are some important and useful tips for new bloggers. Thanks!!
Thanks darling!